The Irish standard., 1887-10-29
PEACE IN RELIGION ONLY.
The Purpose of Mans Life is to be
Happy Somewhere and that Some
where is Not Here.
THEMETHOD OF THE DIVINE WILL
This Law Has Always Existed---It- Elk.
listed from Eternity ; 1t Must Bx-
list Through Eternity.

IhlS Law has Always hXlsGed---IL- hX-
listed from Eternity 1t Must Bx-
list Through Eternity.
| Man is forever restless but he can
not rest because his end is not here $,
he was made for sphere higher than
the world; we feel and see he was
made to gaze on the sunlight. or the
rainbow, the ocean or the forest, the
star -gemmed heavens, or even the
brightest angels face. He was made to 1
listen to mnsic more thrilling than the !!
voice of the ocean, the song OF the TEN
pest, or the bird, or the softest notes Of
the human voice, or the gentlest strain
of heavenly harp. He is made to.
love something more glorious, more
sublime than his eye OF ear can see or
hear, or even his imagination can con.
ceiye, so that the end of man is not in
his life, and SO the purpose of his sen
tence must elsewhere be found.
Everything tells us that the purpose
of mans life is to be perfectly happy
somewhere, and everything tells us
that that somewhere is not here The
bright sunshine, the far off stars, the
songs Of the birds, the cloudless sky,
the murmuring river, the blue waves,
the rough west wind, echo the Creators
voice and tell lis man WAS made to en-
10Y a union and harmony with the high
est and the best, that is with God Him.
self and that it is the duty of man to-
keep in harmony with Him, till death
enters the portals Of. blessed life before
him. Man being the climax OF ma
terial beings, everything i'll creation
points to him and rises to him, and he
is destined to finally be united with His
God as Muller puts it, "Ths long as
cending line of dead matter to man has
progress Godward, not an asynaptetrl-
cal progress, but destined from the be-
ginning to form a point Of union IN
man.
1t is, then, in the human soul and
cousciences that the union Of God with
His creatures in the highest form takes
place it is there that the highest har-
mony, and the most majestic music of
the spheres is heard {; it is there ON thaS
shoreless ocean, with no gigantic bill
low. with no shore or continent or
mountain to stay the onward wave OF
harmony that pervades I'eaven and
earth, the Creator and the creatures
unite and blend. How that union is,
and what that communion must be, we
need not endeavor to imagine; poetry,
reason, romance, imagination are fu-
tile to conceive, they do not even light
| ly touch the surface of those mysterious
depths where the human lies buried in
the divine ocean Of Gods blessed love.
But with this tidal wave, with this
ascending movement of all nature we
must move along, and it is the work OF
conscience to show us where the path
way tl,ither lies to lead us safely over
the stormy waves Of life till it brings
us TO a resting place in the home OF end
less sunshine and eternal rest
We may call conscience a faculty
given by God to man, whereby be can
distinguish right and wrong, and feel
that right ought to be, and wrong ought
not to be. Carried out by The will and
resting on this perceptlve power is the
conviction, our wills moving with or
against it are perfectly free. That
such is conscience, the conviction Of all
sensible people affirm, and, though
Haekel may tell US that the will is
never free, or Tyndal] may tell US eve
offend because we cannot help Offend
ing,7 OF a host of atheistic fools pro-
claim that conscience is only the out
come OF matter. or but the last thrOb Of
the prinnordial fog from which every
thing is evolved, still the universal faith
in The divine origin Of conscience and
its freedom remains unbroken. ltswas
no wonder Carlyle laughed to scorn the
mental freaks OF Frederick, the dwarf
offspring Of the Voltarian school PRO
testing against the possibility of con-
ceivirg how mental and moral emotion
could be put into himself by an entity
that had none Of it's own.''
Every genius of ancient and moder
tim 8, Augustine and Cicero, Plato and
st. Thomas, Aristotle and Ambrose
Leibnitz and Bonaventure, Kant and
Ignatius tells us with Richter, that |
there lisa sense of responsibility. a feel
ing Of dependence and obedience to a
power outside ourselves that is chlseled
deep in the heart and convictions Of |
every fully developed man. This, too.
is the creed and voice of universal ma
tslre the voice that, in a lucid % oment,
forced even .Tyndall to explain We
are woven By q power outside ourselves
on this power we mo ove, rest =, and de-